Four Ways To Handle Situations That Are Out of Your Control

We plan. We forecast. We listen to our customers, and we read the business, political and economic news. Despite our efforts, things happen that are completely out of our control and can turn our world upside down in a split second.

I’ve always believed that how we handle these uncontrollable surprises is what separates the men from the boys, or shall I say, the women from the girls.

It's not always negative events; sometimes very good unpredictable things can occur. At those times, we just feel darn lucky or claim we knew it was coming all of the time.

This week in the Texas Hill Country is a perfect example of the unpredictable.

It is hay cutting and baling time. A ritual that just does my soul good. I would like to say it is an annual ritual, but sadly not. There are times when lack of rain at the right time can make or break the possibility of bringing in enough hay to sustain a herd of longhorn cattle, horses and goats through the barren winter months.

Central Texas is often described as a big drought interrupted by an occasional flood. We have suffered a pretty severe drought over the past several years. At times, we had to bring in hay from as far as Kentucky. This is expensive. Many ranchers have been forced to sell a lot of their livestock, driving meat prices down for a year, only to have prices spike the next year because of a shortage in the market.

This year is a good one. Rains came just when needed. But we were ready either way.

This made me think of getting advice around preparing for, and handling, adverse situations, so I called my friend, Cordia Harrington, Founder and CEO of The Bun Companies.

As their name implies, The Bun Companies operate bakeries serving the southeastern U.S. and Caribbean Islands for McDonald’s, ConAgra and other elite customers. I first met Cordia when we were named top women business builders by Fast Company magazine a few years ago.

As a business owner, she often finds herself in situations out of her control. She has two modes of managing the unexpected.

First, she identifies the issue, dives in and tries to “fix” the situation.

“Recently, I had an HR issue that I tried to fix through coaching and encouragement. Despite my efforts in this case, I couldn’t turn the situation around,” she said.

While her first instinct is to “dive in,” her second is the opposite.

“At other times when I find myself in situations out of my control, I must let go and accept the situation. There could be a ‘plan greater than mine,’” she told me. “When I don’t interfere, I am always in awe of the outcome.”

She summarized her point with the famous quote from Reinhold Niebuhr, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

This advice brought to mind my preferred approach. Like Cordia, my first instinct is to take action—fast. But from there, move on; don’t dwell. Or as my mother so wisely put it, “Fifty years from now, who is going to care?”

It may rain, or not. The storm may hit, or pass you by. That big deal may come in, or implode unexpectedly. The events may be out of your control. How you react, that’s all you.